


Phoenix Fire

by anonymousAlchemist, epersonae, ruffboi



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Oh god, SO FUCKIN SORRY, THIS IS THE BAD END FOLKS, WE'RE ALL SO SORRY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-18 21:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12396825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymousAlchemist/pseuds/anonymousAlchemist, https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruffboi/pseuds/ruffboi
Summary: Taako fails his will save as he picks up the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet.The Umbrastaff is destroyed.Lup doesn't take it well.





	Phoenix Fire

**Author's Note:**

> So this started with a little blip of angst that anonymousAlchemist wrote on tumblr. Ruffboi was inspired to follow up on that with their own angst. And then epersonae made everything worse.

**i. Wisdom**

He picks up the gauntlet and it whispers to him, here is power never-ending, here are all his faults burnt away, here is everything washed away in cleansing flame. It fits perfectly on his hand. He doesn’t think about that too much — it must be enchanted, and it’s telling him that it could make him a god among men, a god among elves, a  _god._ has he ever felt powerless? Has he ever felt stupid? Has he ever been wronged? 

He clenches his fist. 

“Taako, buddy,” Magnus says, and it’s the voice that they use when they think you’re being high strung, kinda nuts, Taako might be an idiot but he’s not  _stupid._ He doesnt notice that the pupils of his eyes have been replaced by flames, the umbrella he’s holding is also getting hotter under his fingertips. 

“What’s up, Maggie?” he says, and his fist is smoking, and the tips of his hair are catching ablaze, and the gauntlet is still whispering that if he uses it, things will be better, he will be better, and no one will ever hurt him again. 

“You wanna maybe put that thing down?” Merle says, and Taako turns to him. Merle looks apprehensive. Taako smiles, beatific. 

“No,” he says, and thrusts upward with the gauntlet and everything is white, hot, gone. 

Later: 

An umbrella crumbles to ash. Lup picks up her gauntlet. She screams anguish on a plane of black glass. 

 

* * *

 

**ii. Grief**

She could undo it.

All Lup had to do was put some of the relics together, wait for the Hunger to come, and fly the Starblaster away.  Easy.  Easy, and she’d have her brother back.  She’d have her heart back.

It took hardly any time at all to realize where Lucretia was.  She sent more people after the gauntlet, or maybe whoever she’d sent after the gauntlet in the first place.  Lup spent that week sitting outside the cave, holding the gauntlet, fighting to keep herself together.

Ten years she’d waited.  Taako hadn’t recognized the umbrastaff when she found it, but it was him, he was there. And then she was free, and he was gone.

(A small part of her grieved Magnus and Merle too, but that was secondary. All that mattered was her brother - her dumbass, fashion disaster, brilliant baby brother - was dead, because of her, in a world they’d intended death to be permanent.)

She was already fraying at the edges by the time she got to the moon. Those be-bracered folks kept trying to stop her, but it wasn’t like they were strong enough to hurt her if she didn’t want them to, and the strength of their defense led them straight to where she needed to go.

She found Lucretia and almost - almost - felt her edges pulling back in. Lu was old, older than she should be, and she looked so very very tired. (Yet another reason to start over.)

“Lup?” Lucretia asked, incredulous and beginning to smile.  "How–“

Lup cut her off, throwing the gauntlet at the other woman’s feet.  "Put it together.  We have to go.”

Lucretia’s smile morphed into the beginning of a frown.  "What–“

"They’re dead, Lucretia!” she screamed, her voice reverberating and lightning crackling over her body. “The Hunger has to come.  We have to leave.”

The frown crumpled as what Lup said sank in, as the enormity of the loss hit her.  Lucretia gasped as if she’d been struck, rocked back a step or two.  Lup expected her to say yes, of course, there was no other choice, she’d do it right now.

Instead, Lucretia reached up and clutched a small locked that hung around her neck.

“Oh, Lup,” she whispered.  "I… I don’t know if I can.  There’s–“

Lup didn’t wait to hear Lucretia’s excuse. It wasn’t good enough. She’d thank Lup when they were all alive, together on the Starblaster again. No one was going to stop that.  She exploded in a wash of fire to rival the gauntlet she created, ignoring the small part of her that broke at the sound of Lucretia’s protesting scream, cut short in the rush of flame.

When the fire died down, all that was left on the surface of the moon was Lup, the gauntlet, a white oak staff, and a plane of black glass.

"It’ll all be okay,” Lup heard herself saying, eerily calm in the wake of such destruction. “Soon we’ll all be together again.”

It wasn’t that hard to put the gauntlet and Lu’s bulwark staff back into a larger piece of the Light. It wanted to be back together, after all. It was never meant to be divided. She wasn’t sure where any of the other relics were, but only days later, she saw the eyes, the spies, and knew the Hunger was coming

It didn’t matter where the other relics were. Now all she had to do was wait.

There were some underground structures that had survived under the glass, she discovered as she looked for the Starblaster. She ignored the surviving residents, largely, dispatching the ones who tried to get in her way.  The Starblaster was in a hidden hangar, to her relief - no searching for it necessary. She found Fisher (and some bard, who tried to impose himself between her and Fisher but didn’t attack, so she ignored him) in a large tank.  Lup busted through the ceiling to the surface as he chimed inquiringly at her.

“Come on,” she said, leading him up toward the open air.  When they get to the surface, Fisher’s chimes turned frantic and dissonant.  "Lu’s gone,“ Lup said calmly.  "And all this.  It’s okay, we’ll all be together soon.”

Fisher didn’t calm, repeating the same seven-note sequence again and again as he seemed to search every inch of the base.  Lup let him, ignoring him in favor of floating up a bit and staring intently at the sky. Less than a year, and then she could get him back.  She didn’t notice when Fisher stopped searching, stopped calling out, stopped singing.  Stopped moving.  The sun rose and set, the stars circled, the true moon passed over her, and still she waited.  She’d gotten good at waiting.

She wasn’t sure how long it had been when Barry found her. Probably a few weeks, judging by the position of the stars, but she wasn’t familiar enough with them to be sure.

“Oh god,” she heard him say, voice shaking, and her untethered crackling-lightning edges coalesced a bit. She’d lost her heart, but her love was here, at least. He would wait with her until everything was okay again. She turned, smiling widely. He, too, was in lich form, but he looked horrified as he surveyed their surroundings. “Oh god,” he repeated.  "I… babe?“ he cautiously closed the distance between them, and she fell into his arms, wrapping herself around him.  

"Bear,” she murmurs happily.

“What happened?” he asked. “Are you okay? Where’s Lucretia? The others?”

“Gone,” she said calmly, resting her head on his shoulder. She’d missed him.

“What?” he choked out, edges flickering slightly.

“It’s okay, Bear,” she said, watching curiously as their edges bled into each other. “The Hunger’s coming, and I have the ship. It’s all gonna be okay.”

She went back to watching the sky not long after that. Barry asked her questions - where she’d gone, where she’d been, what had happened to the others, that sort of thing. She answered, of course. She felt guilty, just a little, now that he was here helping ground her. She had probably overreacted to Lucretia’s moment of hesitation. It’d be okay, though - Lu would forgive her once they were all back on the ship, in the next cycle.

She started losing herself sometimes, the longer they waited, her sense of self narrowing to her love for Barry and her vigil on the sky. It was hard to remember anything but those, sometimes. Barry was always there, though, with gentle words and loving touches, and then she’d widen out, just enough to remember why she was watching.  Maybe this sort of thing was what had scared Taako so much about her becoming a lich in the first place, she thought sometimes.

“I have to go,” Barry told her one day, newly intense and pulling her attention from the sky. “If I don’t come back, just remember I love you and I’ll see you in a couple weeks.”

“Where are you going?” she asked, lightning sparking.

“Something’s trying to track us,” he said. “I’m off to do illegal necromancy stuff to keep their attention so you and the ship stay safe, okay?”  He paused, touched her cheek lightly. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she echoed, and held him tightly for a moment. Even if he was caught, it’d be okay. The Hunger would be here soon.

He didn’t come back.

When the Hunger finally appeared overhead, Lup couldn’t help but be joyful and relieved. She sent the Starblaster out into the void with a light heart and a too-wide smile. Everything was going to be okay again.

The strings of light wrapped around her as she crossed the threshold, and as they all blinked back at her, suddenly alive again, she threw herself at Taako, clutching him so tightly and trembling so hard that she thought she might shake apart. Everything was okay again. They were all here, all alive.

“Where’s Fisher?” Magnus asked, at the same time Davenport asked, “What happened?”

And then Lucretia - younger again, alive again, like she should be - let out an anguished scream, collapsing to her knees and beginning to sob. It sounded to Lup like she was crying out a name - Agnes or Amos or something.  

Lup stared at her for half a second, then looked at the others.  Merle was leaning hard against the wall, looking like he might be sick.  Taako was hugging her back, but awkwardly, like he’d forgotten how. Magnus was trying to comfort Lucretia and call for Fisher all at once, not doing well at either. Barry had sunk into the captain’s seat and was sitting with his head in his hands, all color drained from his face.  Davenport was staring at Lucretia like she was a stranger.

“It’s okay,” Lup said, for the hundredth time, the millionth time, laughing unsteadily as what she did washed over her.  "We’re together again.“

"Everything’s okay now.”

 

* * *

 

**iii. Ending**

The ship landed. It was a habitable world, but really, no one cared. Days passed. The Light fell, somewhere. The scouts came. No one paid attention.

At least being with Barry was normal. They didn’t talk much; it had been a bad time, but they’d been together at the end, and that meant a lot for both of them.

Taako looked at Lup uneasily. He didn’t go into the kitchen, ever. She silently brought him food, afraid of the emptiness in his eyes, afraid to ask. He ate, but with no interest, no enthusiasm. He went from always half-draped over his sister to barely touching, flinching when she approached.

When Magnus realized Fischer was…just…gone, after 60 years, he went for a run and they didn’t see him again.

None of the seven had ever known a time when Merle couldn’t find a cheerful word or an irreverent invitation to dance. Well, this was that time. He sat alone, staring at nothing. She tried to talk to him once, to say something to shake him out of it. He started crying. She’d never actually seen Merle cry, not like this, as though something irreplaceable had been lost.

And Lucretia: she wouldn’t leave her room. Lup banged on it once. She opened it, stared at Lup with bleak red-rimmed eyes. “You took away everything I built and you killed my son. Don’t talk to me again.” She slammed the door in Lup’s face.

Davenport stood at the wheel of the motionless ship stone-faced as if he could will the Bond Engine to keep going all by himself. He couldn’t, though, and broken apart as they were, it couldn’t.

One hundred and one planar systems they’d seen, always pulling through somehow. They would never see one hundred and two.


End file.
